A
Original message sent by as you wish
Here, I'll give you a new "thing not to say to a baker" to get that taste out if your mouth. :) When someone found out that I make cakes they looked at my husband, who is quite thin, and said "You must not be very good"!
AHere's one that gets me: Never trust a skinny baker.
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Original message sent by IAmPamCakes
Here's one that gets me: Never trust a skinny baker.
You can still love the thread. 99% of it is still good and what will be added after will also be good. We are the ones at fault if we let a few "questionable" comments ruin the enjoyment we've gotten and will continue to get out of this thread. I'm mostly a reader and don't contribute a lot because I'm a hobby baker and don't experience what most of you do, but I still get a lot out of reading your input to these threads....some is advice, some is good laughter, but it is all good, enjoyable, and we can all learn something out of the conversations. Just my humble opinion......
AI've totally enjoyed this thread. I've done waitressing mostly...so I totally see how this works. I've been to "notalwaysright" several times before and that really does happen. I'm just a hobby baker too...learning so much here.
asyouwish, the people I used to work with did the same thing to my husband. He was always thin (before he retired!) and when my fellow employees finally met him, they asked how come he wasn't 300-400 pounds! I used to bake all the birthday and celebration goodies for work and I always got lots of compliments about how good everything was. They just assumed that my husband partook of everything I baked and, therefore, should "look" like he did. He has always loved my cooking as well as my baking, but back then he was more active and worked it off (I also baked for his fellow employees). When he had to retire for medical reasons, he wasn't able to be quite as active and now you can see that he does love what is cooked and baked for him. We're both working on doing something about that!! Unfortunately, I've always had the biggest sweet tooth on earth!
My husband is very skinny, he eats o lot of sweets,( I have some cake or sweets for deserts everyday0 but he does a lot of physical work at home or at work, and my brother is always joking at me: " Do you feed him anything else besides your cakes? Give him some steak! 
Why do people feel the need to say that stuff? On the other hand, I'm starting a diet this week, I hope it's not too long before people are saying that to me :lol: let me try it out --- you're soooo skinny, your cake must not be good. Yes, that sounds like music to my ears! 
Well here's one for you-- the bride came for her tasting and brought the groom, who had obviously been drinking. He was a little shorter than me (I'm 5' 3") and was determined to keep his face about 5 inches from mine-- mashing up against me-- asking questions about my personal life, etc. The bride seemed to not notice. I'm feeling like paying her to not marry the jerk.
LOL, howsweet! I'm also working on a diet and am hoping to get this extra weight off as quickly as possible. But as I stated earlier, I have the biggest sweet tooth in the world and that is my biggest downfall. I love almost all things sweet....except chocolate. Chocolate is not one of my downfalls (unless it's brownies or german chocolate cake); chocolate is one sweet that for some reason I don't like that much unless it's milk chocolate. Dark, semisweet, etc., just not my thing. Not even chocolate ice cream. Those things, I use my hubby as my tester! Now give me something with caramel, lemon or berries of any kind and I'm all in!
AI am only on page 60 of this thread! I love it! I am relieved I am not the only one who has dealt with many of the same scenarios! I have been laughing at every post so far! What a great stress reliever! Our cakes are better than mass-produced cakes- We all create our own beautiful masterpieces to be enjoyed by others- not to be criticized by people to save a dime! Kudos to everyone here! It's not easy, but it is fun!
AI quoted someone $240.00 for this cake and she said it was too expensive! She didn't want to spend anywhere near that much! Ummmm....the elephant alone is worth that much LOL. I was giving her a deal :-) Nope, not coming down to $50.00 sorry. [IMG ALT=""]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3238577/width/350/height/700[/IMG]
Oh, how cute! I don't blame you for not going down in price. That elephant is adorable! I do have to admit, however, that before I got into cake decorating, I didn't know how much work went into them either. Starting to decorate as a hobby, I found out there's more work put into decorating than most people know. I don't do the detailed cakes you pros do, but there's a lot more prep that goes into a cake than I was aware of before.
Such a cute cake Declansmom but the work on the "accessories" for the cake alone are time consuming. Guess she thought it was something you could just whip up without any extra time or energy.
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The first time I read this my initial thought was wondering if she wasn't having cravings. Some women do get some VERY weird cravings during this unusual time in their life and she might be afraid to tell you about it. It's just a thought, I could be completely off the mark on this one. OR.... Do you think she's trying to make the cupcakes for her own shower? One way to find out is to make a small batch of cupcakes, with the chocolate frosting of course, say....oh about a dozen and take them to her as a gift. You did say she's a good friend, right? And it might come out then what she's actually up to. Is she trying to make these cupcakes just for herself or is this info for the cake or whatever for her shower? I've heard a lot of "wives tales" about cravings when a woman is expecting such as it's something a woman's body needs as in a craving for ice cream means her body needs calcium, etc., or something with meat she needs protein, so on and so forth.
All I know is that having a craving in today's world is MUCH easier to fulfill than when my own mother was expecting. Imagine in the WINTER of 1960/1961 you are pregnant with your first child. The ONE item you are DESPERATELY craving, of all things, is watermelon. Now unlike today in the mid-atlantic region in the dead of winter a person did NOT find any sort of summer fruit in a grocery store. Finally, an aunt of my dad had a friend who of all things.....had watermelon frozen in her freezer. What that was like I couldn't tell you since I've never heard of people freezing watermelon. Sure....now here inthe 21st century food corporations have all sorts of frozen fruit in the freezer section in the supermarket but this wasn't so in 1960. It must have satisfied her because I never heard any stories about her doing anything wild or crazy to get some. But the odd thing.....once watermelon comes into our area fresh.....or at least starts to show up on the eastern shore (that's Maryland's eastern shore)and it's delivered almost daily to the more western part of Maryland I crave it and want it EVERY day for almost every meal. Also, one of my brother's all time favorite foods is my mother's craving while she was carrying him. Now he had much more expensive taste than I did as an unborn child....he wanted shrimp. We had a drive-in (not a drive thru), one of those old-fashioned drive-in's with the speaker boxes you pull your car up to and place your order when we were kids. (no roller skating waitresses though). It was called Jim's Always Resturant and they had a "Shrimp In A Basket" that was WONDERFUL. Even as a kid I love it. It had the most beautifully breaded and deep-fried LARGE shrimp with a lovely, spicy cocktail sauce, delicate, brown, hot french fries and the creamiest, nicest cole slaw as the meal. At 1 am in the morning my mom would get a craving for this Shrimp Basket and my dad would get up and go get one. To this day my brother (and my dad too despite all those late night runs) are HUGE shrimp eaters. So.......has anyone else felt that what they craved while they were expecting affected their child's food likes or what did YOUR mother crave and what's your favorites?
Hi Pam! So when I first started reading this thread I had a similar reaction as you to some of the posts, and then I was gently reminded from a member that this was just a place for decorators to vent and form a community. Most would never actually say these things to a customer, they are just venting the monologue in their head. In fact, you chose to critique one of the most business-savvy members on the site. I think you should observe the threads for awhile and get to know the personalities before completely tearing someone down....you never know, howsweet may have the very information you come here to obtain one day! Like I said, I once made the same mistake as you, and I was gently reminded this thread is a vent, so I'm paying forward the gentle reminder to you!
Cute cake Declansmama! Mardie is actually a member of CC :) She used to be up here where I am but moved recently and devastated the town! Lol! Her cakes are beautiful. I wonder what she charged for that cake? I can't believe that some people think a cake like that would be $50! Crazy.
Some friends just told me this story recently: they went to a wedding where they were helping out. The cake arrived and it was leaning. In a very short time it fell over. They took a look at it and there were no dowels in it whatsoever. They didn't want to freak out the bride so one of them called a good friend who was a well known baker in the area. It just so happened someone did not pick up their gorgeous cake that day so she sold it to them for dirt cheap. The bride didn't know until after the ceremony and of course was very appreciative of the save. She told some of her other friends what had happened and her friends said, "You should ask that baker (the one who gave her the gorgeous cake) to give you some of the money back. You did HER a favor by taking that cake off her hands!"
You've probably all heard similar to this before. Recently I flew to Queensland to see my parents and used the opportunity to take a fruit cake with me for my Dad's birthday (rather than mailing it like I usually do). It is the underwater cake in my photos with the scuba diver, mermaid etc. While we were waiting to disembark a lady asked to have a look. Her first words were "Wow, that's amazing" closely followed by "I used to do cakes like that for all the time for my kids birthdays". Yeah, I doubt it from how amazed she sounded but I suppose it could be possible. Even so, why try to devalue MY cake.
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You've probably all heard similar to this before. Recently I flew to Queensland to see my parents and used the opportunity to take a fruit cake with me for my Dad's birthday (rather than mailing it like I usually do). It is the underwater cake in my photos with the scuba diver, mermaid etc. While we were waiting to disembark a lady asked to have a look. Her first words were "Wow, that's amazing" closely followed by "I used to do cakes like that for all the time for my kids birthdays". Yeah, I doubt it from how amazed she sounded but I suppose it could be possible. Even so, why try to devalue MY cake.
Yeah sure she made hand made fondant figurines, coral etc for her kids.
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Some friends just told me this story recently: they went to a wedding where they were helping out. The cake arrived and it was leaning. In a very short time it fell over. They took a look at it and there were no dowels in it whatsoever. They didn't want to freak out the bride so one of them called a good friend who was a well known baker in the area. It just so happened someone did not pick up their gorgeous cake that day so she sold it to them for dirt cheap. The bride didn't know until after the ceremony and of course was very appreciative of the save. She told some of her other friends what had happened and her friends said, "You should ask that baker (the one who gave her the gorgeous cake) to give you some of the money back. You did HER a favor by taking that cake off her hands!"
Made me think of the quote "No good deed goes unpunished"
AThat's so neat! She does do good work. ;-)
Hmm. The "rescue" baker HAD given them the unclaimed replacement cake at a fire-sale price, both out of compassion and out of wanting to cut her losses. A disaster was turned into a win-win situation; what more did the boorish friends expect?
This thread is the best! I am so relieved to see that I am not the only person to deal with these scenarios! I have been laughing for days at some of these posts! What a great stress reliever! We are all talented artists designing beautiful creations for people to enjoy, not to be criticized by others to save a dime! Cake decorating isn't easy, but it is fun! This thread proves it! Kudos to all of us who work hours and hours in the kitchen preparing confectionery masterpieces!
I am only on page 75 of this thread. I'm not sure if a story like this has been shared or not, but here's my story. I have a Wilton 12 x 18 inch half sheet pan. Wilton's chart says 20 cups of batter and 8 cups of frosting to make this cake (I'm certain I used more...) That's A LOT of cake mix and A LOT of frosting. I take this chocolate cake decorated with pink and white buttercream frosting to the party. Everyone loves it. ( ten people were there) I get a phone call later that evening telling me that the woman just loved the cake, it was so delicious, and she couldn't stop eating it. Seriously. She told me she ate almost half the cake. Um. Okay. "That's a lot of chocolate and frosting." I told her. "That can't be good." But she loves her chocolate!
The next afternoon, I get a call from her, very irate, proceeding to tell me that she was very, very ill, she hadn't left bathroom all morning, missed work, and what did I put in that cake?!?
REALLY?!?!? I have been doing cakes for over 20 years, no one has ever gotten sick from any of them. I'm pretty sure it had to do with eating almost a 1/4 sheet chocolate cake with frosting!
Everything in moderation.
I've just been catching up on here, and still loving it :)
I thought I'd share my latest headdesk moment with you...
I was looking for an airbrush machine last year and saw one on fb, asked about the price and found it was too much for me. The chap selling it noticed I make cakes so suggested a trade of the machine for a christening cake at a later date for his little one. I agreed.
This got changed slightly and I ended up doing a 25th bd cake for a friend of theirs instead. All good, they love it. Christening comes around and I'm asked to do a 2 tier cake, marshmallow pops, truffles and cupcakes. I do this for them, again very happy, and they tell me they'll be wanting me to do their elaborate wedding cake next (this) November.
I get a fb message in Jan telling me the date has been moved to May, and can I quote for a much less elaborate cake. No problem I say, but I won't be able to quote properly for a couple of weeks (wedding is months away). The reason for this, which I told the bride to be, was because the first wedding fair of the season was two weeks away, and I'd just found every single one of my dummies had been ruined in the loft and I had to remake the lot in very little time. She was fine with this and told me 'no rush'.
I saw her at the first wedding fair two weeks later, told her she would be getting her quote in the morning, and she said ok.
I duly send the quote, and get the reply 'don't worry, it's too late, I organised it 3 weeks ago'. I was gobsmacked. I replied saying that it wouldn't have made any difference them if I'd quoted on the day she asked, as she apparently had already booked someone a week before asking me!! No reply to that until out of the blue I get a request from her to make her son's first birthday cake, and a load of bride and groom cake pops! Sadly, I was busy doing nothing so couldn't fit it in.
Edit to say that I did paragraph this post, but the formatting is just going screwy! Sorry for the single line of rant!
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Brilliant!
I got a call yesterday for someone who sent me a photo of a 2 tier cake with teddy bears and building blocks on it - pretty well detailed & when I gave her the price she responds with "oh, I only wanted to spend €55"
You think if I go into a high end boutique, pick up a handbag that's priced hundreds of € and tell them I can only pay €55 they would let me have it? Am I being too mean by not making it for what is essentially for free???
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Am I being too mean by not making it for what is essentially for free???
Oh yes, very mean 
Don't fret about it, at least she wasn't outright rude to you. She'll pop off and get someone to bake it for £3.50, and maybe it'll be what she wanted, but more likely it'll be pretty shoddy.
What I didn't mention about my lady above was that I found out that the cake she ended up with was not good. Looked dreadful (according to her - I saw a photo and thought it just looked a bit meh, certainly not dreadful), and apparently the cake itself was pretty poor.
You know you would do a cracking job for a reasonable cost. She's not aware of the cost/time, that's her issue not yours. I know what you mean though, I really try not to get annoyed/disheartened with the 'How Much?!' replies, but it does get to you. Someone on here said to think it's not that it's too expensive, it's that they can't afford it. Spot on! I want a pair of Manolo's, but they're not in my price range. I don't have a hissy fit at the designer because I can't afford them!
I was quoting a cake for a customer and another customer , with no appointment, walked in with a 3/4 year old girl wanting a quote on a cake. I told her if she was prepared to wait for a few minutes I would be able to see her. I went back to my first customer and the little girl immediately started running around pulling things off displays etc with her mother doing nothing to stop her. After a couple of minutes the girl walked out and the mother came and interrupted us and said "She's ready to leave, we have to go can you give me a price on this cake?" and held her phone out.
It was a 2 tier fondant with figurines on the top and sides sort of a Teddy Bears picnic type of design. One of the people in her mothers group told her she would do it for $100 and she thought that was too expensive so was shopping around trying to get it cheaper. My price said with an absolutely straight face - $450.00. I have no idea how many people the cake was for, size, how much of the detail she wanted but if that kid came back in my price was going to be $550.00. The mother huffed a bit and told me my price was ridiculous and walked out.
My other (nice) customer couldn't believe what the mother had said and asked if I often had customers like that, my answer "Every day". We then had fun designing her 50th birthday cake.
I can completely relate to what you are saying-- here's the sad reality for me: I have a program that allows me to know exactly how much that cake costs to make in ingredients (CakeBoss Cloud). What it can't tell me is what I am worth per hour to make the cake-- I have to decide that myself. Like a lot of bakers I know, one minute I think "hey this cake has a lot of my time/attention to detail in it and I'm worth $___!" Other times I think, "Who would pay that much money for a cake?" That's when I start giving away the farm, as they say. I don't know if I should be like the landscaper and double the cost of the ingredients and that's my labor charge, or charge by the slice, or by the hour-- it all seems so confusing and subjective to me. Some cakes that have a lot of expensive ingredients can be made and decorated in a very small amount of time, and some very simple low cost cake batters can take hours to assemble and decorate. By the slice doesn't seem accurate because different flavors that I offer (fillings, icings etc) will cost different amounts to make. And then the number of slices per recipe can be varied depending on how large or small the pieces are cut (wedding vs party slices). Seems like no one can agree on that number of slices per pan size thing. So, it's easy to understand why you question yourself when a customer balks at a price. I will say this-- having a firm handle on the actual cost of the cake (not the price, which is your labor included) has been a real confidence booster for me when I give a quote. I wish I had an answer for you.
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